


you look so pretty but you're gone so soon

by psychopass



Series: nijiaka week [4]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M, arbiter!akashi, death parade au, human!nijimura, the prompt was an au, written for nijiaka week day 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 05:39:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3680004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psychopass/pseuds/psychopass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His eyes feel ridiculously heavy and he curses mentally. He slumps against the elevator wall and slowly starts to give in the fatigue: the only thing he can hear is the strangely comforting hum of the elevator. In the corner of his mind, a small voice whispers “you are dead”.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you look so pretty but you're gone so soon

He can hear the elevator bell ring in the background. He is only vaguely aware of his surroundings, which in the back of his head, Nijimura notes to be weird as his senses were usually impeccably sharp, but right now, he feels despairingly drowsy. . .He can hear elevator doors slide open (so he _is_ near an elevator, which was strange. Hadn't he been walking back to his apartment?) He's too weak to protest as he feels himself being shoved into the elevator. The doors slide close and Nijimura starts to panic slightly. The inside of the elevator was eerily quiet, there was no cheap elevator music, which although Nijimura always despises, anything that could keep him awake would be appreciated. His eyes feel ridiculously heavy and he curses mentally. He slumps against the elevator wall and slowly starts to give in the fatigue: the only thing he can hear is the strangely comforting hum of the elevator. In the corner of his mind, a small voice whispers _“you are dead”_.

 

 

.0.

 

  
His eyes suddenly flutter open and he finds himself sitting at the corner of a small room. It takes him about 30 seconds to remember that, right, he was in an elevator, although the thought did little to ease his worries. He takes a moment to do what he should have done before he passed out - assess his surroundings. The interior of the elevator was rather plain, just simple grey and brown with dim lights flickering above - there doesn’t appear to be anything that would cause him harm. He looks around and spots the elevator key pad - the button for floor 85 was lit up - Nijimura’s bewildered to see that the floors go all the way up to 90; his first thought was that he was now in the Empire State Building but he shakes his head - it would be absurd to think he had suddenly been transferred overseas in such a short amount of time. (Or at least, what he hoped was a short period of time.)

 

  
He rises to his feet unsteadily, only to have to grasp the elevator side rail for support. He has a throbbing headache and suddenly, he hears the small voice in the back of his head again. ( _Again?_ He doesn't recall hearing it the first time.) The voice repeats the same three words over and over again, and the shock is enough for Nijimura to lose his hold on the railing and fall back down on the floor of the elevator.

 

  
Dead.

 

  
He's dead.

 

  
Was this the afterlife? Nijimura has never been religious, never quite believed in the ideas of 'heaven' and 'hell', nor did he believe in life after death: yet here he was, feeling as if he hadn't died at all.

 

  
How did he die?

 

  
He doesn't know the answer to that, and he curses out loud. How could he forget how he died? Nijimura has never been a particularly forgetful person, let alone one to forget something as important as the details of his own death.

 

  
The elevator bell rings again and the doors slide open, waiting. Nijimura has a feeling they will not be closing until he walks out, so he grasps the railing again and hauls himself up, stumbling out of the elevator. He finds himself in what seemed to be a lobby of sorts, except it was missing all the important things: such as a desk and human life, he thinks dryly. Above him hangs a crystal chandelier, below him, lavish red carpeting. Nijimura frowns, he has only to been so many fancy places in his life, and he certainly did not think that the afterlife would have looked like this.

 

  
A hallway stretches out in front of him, and Nijimura realizes that it is probably his only chance to find out what was going on here: after all, he has nothing else to lose, so he walks down the dimly lit hallway and turns the corner, before reaching some place that looked vaguely like a bar.

 

  
Now, this was definitely not what he had pictured happening in the life: what was this? He notices a redheaded figure standing behind the bar, and when he nears, he realizes that is a young man - very young, in fact, Nijimura would not be surprised if he was still classified as a boy. He only appears to be about eighteen or nineteen, and Nijimura frowns at this. It seems much too young an age to be working at some sort of bar. (And then he thinks sheepishly, _right,_ this is some sort of life-after-death; this guy has probably already been dead for many years, probably already older than Nijimura himself.)

 

  
"Welcome to Teiko," the boy says, bowing politely. He stands straight again and glances at Nijimura through half lidded eyes. He has long, dark eyelashes, Nijimura observes, and unique heterochromatic eyes that lacked the usual shine human eyes had. (Does that happen, when you die? Nijimura wonders. Have his own brown eyes turned lackluster and dull?) "I will be your bartender," the boy continues, interrupting Nijimura from his thoughts. "My name is Akashi Seijuro."

 

  
.0.

 

  
Nijimura pulls out one of the stools at the bar counter and sits down, his head still throbbing.

 

  
"Did no one come with you?" Akashi asks, a frown on his features. _He has a pretty face,_ Nijimura thinks. His complexion is rather pale and his features are unblemished. Nijimura has always been susceptible to beautiful things - he remembers Tatsuya, his friend who was more gorgeous than he had a right to be, and he smiles slightly. Even Tatsuya seemed to pale slightly in comparison to this Akashi Seijuro.

 

  
"Not as far as I'm aware," Nijimura replies. He looks down at his wrist and he realizes that his favorite watch has now stopped completely: the clock hands stuck at 7'o clock. He wonders vaguely if it was meant to be 7 in the morning or 7 at night, did it stop when he died? Was there time in the afterlife? Or did everyone just rot endlessly away? The mass of questions swirling in his head does little to help with his headache, and he groans slightly, rubbing his temples.

 

  
"Here," Akashi says, sliding a glass of water over to Nijimura. "It will do you no good to drink alcohol when you have a headache, nor will it be good to dehydrate yourself."

 

  
"Thanks," Nijimura says gratefully, drinking all of the water in one go, he hadn't realized how thirsty he was until now. When he's done, he props his elbows on the counter and laces his fingers together, staring at Akashi. Akashi takes the cup back from him and begins wiping it down, paying no attention to Nijimura.

 

 

"So," Nijimura begins. "What is this place exactly? I mean, I know that I am dead -"

 

  
Suddenly, he hears a crash, the sound of glass shattering. Akashi has dropped the glass he was holding, turning around to face Nijimura with an alarmed expression.

 

  
"You are aware of the fact that you are dead? Before the game has started?" Akashi demands. He looks very troubled now, almost hesitant, and Nijimura thinks that perhaps he should not have mentioned that bit.

 

  
"Well, yes," Nijimura replies. "Although I don't feel dead."

 

  
"You are..." Akashi pauses. "quite an interesting human, to say the least. What is your name?"

 

  
"Nijimura Shuuzou."

 

  
"Well, Nijimura-san, I've never seen a human who was aware of their passing before the game started, you are the first."

 

  
"You talk as if you're not," Nijimura points out. "Human, I mean."

 

  
Akashi lips curl into a smile. "I'm not."

**Author's Note:**

> should i continue this? i was originally thinking about writing more for this, but didn't like it very much so i just submitted this part. i love death parade a lot and thought that the au would fit these two. ngl - i spent a long time debating who should be the arbiter and who would be the human.  
> 


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